The latest issue of Allium is out, and Columbia students, faculty and staff celebrated at a release party in the Conaway Center at 1104 S. Wabash Ave. on Thursday, April 17.
Allium, a print and online journal published by the college’s School of Communication and Culture, releases three issues yearly, with the fall and summer editions published online, and the spring edition released in print.
Presenters read works from both the print issue and previous online versions at the release party, which was part of the Efroymson Creative Writing Reading Series. This is one of several events hosted in the series. The last one was in March, as previously reported by the Chronicle.
Poetry and other forms of both fiction and non-fiction writing were read by the presenters. Attendees listened as selected contributors presented and read their works out loud. Additionally, they had the opportunity to purchase and receive copies of the spring print.
Riane Bayne, a senior poetry major, read two of her works, titled “Snow Tipped Tongues” and “What The Western Wind Might Dish.”
She said the latter work came to fruition from speaking aloud and it developed into the final product which was the writing.
“I usually write all of my poems within one sitting, so I can capture a moment that feels like one singular, complete thought, as opposed to a whole lot of lines,” Bayne said. “All of these really feel like snapshots of the different people that I’ve been throughout my entire time at Columbia.”
Mole Hart, a senior creative writing major, presented two poems titled “Kitten Thumbs” and “Meditation,” and said that they were written amidst varying emotional seasons and states.
Hart said the first poem, which is written in an elegy style, is about the death of her childhood cat and “the disappointment in realizing that animals don’t have the relationship with language that humans do.”
Each presenter was introduced by a staff member in charge of the publication
Lisa Fishman, a professor in the School of Communication and Culture, presented her upcoming book, which will be released May 9. The book, titled “One Big Time,” retells of her experiences during a two week period in summer 2020.
During that summer while she was in isolation in northern Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she would go out and kayak amongst the lakes.
“I spent every day going out and was trying to find a passage that I had been told existed to cross into another lake, and because of being in lockdown, one couldn’t go anywhere,” Fishman said.
Additionally, this issue comes with a tribute to Don De Grazia, a former professor who died last year. He helped in constructing the creative writing program.
While there were many different topics discussed at the event, what was in common was the sense of pride from presenting to many people.“This has just been, like I said, a big culmination of my time at the institution, and it just really felt like a part of the light at the end of the tunnel,” Bayne said.
